CHAPTER XITHE NIGHT ALARM
“I’m not thrilled by what you say, Perk, because I’ve been more than half expecting to hear that discovery. Glad you got on to him okay; because it’s always best to know what’s in the wind. What sort of a chap is he like?”
Jack spoke in his usual calm way, and the other realized he had undoubtedly been prepared for the sudden news.
“Nothin’ out o’ the way ’bout his looks, far as I c’n see,” was Perk’s reply; “on’y got a few squints at the guy; but he’s keepin’ tab o’ our movements I guess now.”
“Reckon he might be one of those lads in the Ryan ship that crashed in flames after they’d flown the coop?” asked Jack.
“Huh! just can’t be dead sure, partner,” chuckled Perk; “but there’s somethin’ ’bout his walk that gets me into believin’ he’s thekiwithat pilot was keepin’ on our tail so long, stickin’ like a leech from a mud-hole.”
“I wonder,” the other went on to say, as if talking to himself; “if that’s the case then, both those duffers pulled through with their lives, and not so badly hurt. Honestly I’m a bit glad that’s so, for up to the present I’ve never had occasion to take a human life.”
Perk snorted on hearing this.
“Well, if so be you’d been ten years older, my boy, mebbe you’d not be able to say that—chances are you’d a been mixed up in that mess across the Atlantic, when Yanks an’ Johnny Rebs were fightin’ shoulder to shoulder, and it was a case o’ a Heine pilot’s life or our’n. But if you keep on with Uncle Sam’s service as you’re adoin’ right now, the time’ll come for you to fetch back a dead man who jestwouldn’tlet hisself be captured.”
“Like as not,” remarked Jack; “but there’s no need of crossing a river till you come to it; so I’m not taking trouble by the forelock away ahead of time.”
“What’ll we do ’bout this dickey bird that’s bobbin’ at our heels so gaily, tell me, partner?” pursued Perk, eagerly, as though in his fighting heart he was actually hoping his superior would give the order to turn on their persistent pursuer, and at least blacken both his eyes.
“Oh! nothing at all, Perk; let him run his rope; only we’ll keep along streets where there’s plenty of company, and be prepared for any sort of ambush; though I can’t believe he’d be crazy enough to start anything so early in the evening—if the hour was close to midnight, things might be different. There are any number of tough cases in this old Creole city ready to handle a sticking game for the coin in it—blacks and yellows and whites it doesn’t matter which—all of them are assassins at heart.”
“Then you don’t care if he shadows us straight to the hotel?” demanded Perk.
“Much good that will do him.” said Jack with a light laugh; “the chances are two to one he already knows where we’ve put up, and has had some spy dog me to the Federal building. When the time comes for us to jump off we’ll find a slick way to hop our ship without giving these boys a show-down.”
Presently they arrived at the hotel entrance, without any untoward incident arising to mar the quiet of the evening. Perk cast a parting glance toward their rear just before entering, and seeing the shadowy figure hovering not far away, considered it a part of his duty to place his thumb to his nose, and wiggle his fingers derisively, at the same time uttering a snarl like a bobcat at bay, to express his utter contempt.
Once in their room, Jack first of all cast about as if to decide whether any uninvited guest had intruded on their preserves while they were absent.
“Everything seems to be just as we left it,” he told his running mate, after making this little survey, “and even if some busybody did get in here with the aid of a pass-key borrowed from a chambermaid, he was shrewd enough not to mess things up like they did with our friend Scotty of the air mail bunch.”
“I guess now they must acome to the conclusion you keep the letter o’ instructions ’bout your person,” suggested Perk, wisely, “which, bein’ the case mebbe now they figger on sneakin’ in here while we’re sound asleep, an’ agoin’ through your clothes in regulation style. They do tell me there be sneak thieves right clever in this same burgh, equal to the ones out in India, where they c’n steal the sheet from under a sleeper, without wakin’ him up.”
“I understand that’s really true, partner,” Jack agreed; “but we’re not going to let them have half a chance, even if they hired all the crooks in New Orleans to play the game.”
“Sounds good to me, boss,” Perk declared. “We’ll manage to sleep with one eye open, an’ if any critter tries to give us the once over, he’ll wish he’d never been born, that’s all I know.”
Before turning in, Jack placed a chair so nicely balanced that in case of the door being ever so slightly opened it would crash to the floor, making enough noise to arouse the Seven Sleepers. Perk grinned at seeing him prepare this “guardian angel” as he termed it, and lost no time himself in “hitting the hay.”
Some time later in the night, when outside noises had almost died away, there came a loud clatter that awoke both the sleepers instantly. They bounced out on the floor in their pajamas, with Jack pulling the cord he had attached to the electric bulb, so that the room was magically illuminated.
The chair lay on its side, and just beyond Perk could see that their door was partly open; the key had been left in the lock, but skillful fingers must have manipulated it by means of slender-jawed pliers, showing the touch of a professional thief.
Straight toward the door the form of Perk was projected—a hungry lion could hardly have made a more pronounced leap at some four-legged game which he had been stalking.
Tearing open the door still wider, Perk thrust out his head, and looked up and down the hotel corridor. He fancied he could make out a dim figure far along the poorly lighted hall, but it vanished like a phantom even as he stared, evidently turning some corner.
But there were other sounds arising—doors all along the corridor were opening, and heads being projected, showing how the startling alarm had awakened numerous other sleepers, who may have imagined an earthquake was in process of occurring, though such a happening was utterly foreign to the metropolis on the Lower Mississippi.
Voices, too, were heard, from both masculine as well as feminine sources, as the aroused hotel guests endeavored to fathom the real meaning of the row.
Perk, seeing there was nothing doing, closed the door, and locked it again; after which he turned to his companion who had been watching his actions with more or less amusement.
“Consarn his picture,” growled the old fighter; “he got off scot free; I jest glimpsed him aturnin’ the first bend down the hall. Blamed shame I couldn’t come to grips with the yeller cub—I’d a given a heap to twist his neck some, you bet I would. Mebbe now I’d otter sit up the rest o’ the night to make certain, eh, boss?”
“Not the slightest need of such a thing, partner,” Jack assured him. “I’ll fix that door so it won’t be opened again in a hurry.”
With that he again took the stout chair, and placed it diagonally against the door, so that its top rested just under the knob; after that had been accomplished it must needs be a battering-ram that could burst in on them.
Not content with that, Jack went to each of the two windows, thrust out his head to examine for the second time the face of the outer wall of the building so as to make sure there was no ledge wide enough to give a would-be trespasser foothold.
“Not the ghost of a chance for the most nimble thief to get in by way of a window, Perk, so back to bed we go, and sleep like babes in the wood for we’re in the third story and far enough from a fire escape to be secure.”
Perk grinned and nodded acquiescence; truth to tell he was not at all averse to starting all over again—possibly the rude interruption had disturbed him just when he was starting to partake of a royal feast that covered every one of his most beloved dishes and he was hugging the delusion to his heart that if given another chance history might repeat itself.
At least there was no further alarm, and the night passed into oblivion like all its countless predecessors with the rising sun arousing the two comrades, and Perk as usual singing out that he felt as though he could easily manage two customary breakfasts in that delighful restaurant where they were already feeling so much at home.